1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flat plate-shaped platen provided on an inkjet recording apparatus, which detects a side end of a recording medium conveyed and performs recording thereto, the platen supporting the recording medium during the recording. Further, the present invention relates to an inkjet recording apparatus detecting a side end of a recording medium conveyed and performing recording thereto.
2. Description of the Related Art
An inkjet recording apparatus such as a printer and a facsimile are disclosed in JP-A-2000-109243. The inkjet recording apparatus has a flat plate-shaped platen, which guides a conveyed recording medium in a horizontal direction; and a recording head, which is movable in a direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction of the recording medium. The inkjet recording apparatus conveys a recording medium placed on the flat plate-shaped platen and performs recording on the recording medium while the recording head facing the recording medium moves.
The recording head is provided with a light-emitting element having an LED, and a light-receiving element having a phototransistor, both of which are used for detecting the width of the recording medium. The light-emitting element is driven while the recording head is moved in a direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction of the recording medium. Then, side ends of the conveyed recording medium, which are parallel to the conveyance direction, are detected on the basis of whether or not the light-receiving element receives light emitted from the moving light-emitting element and reflected by the recording medium. With this process, a recording start position and a recording finish position in a scanning direction of the recording head can be determined.